Stay out of the fight, ayatollah tells Shiites

By Jonathan Lyons in WashingtonApril 5 2003

A call by Iraq's leading Shiite Muslim cleric asking his millions of followers to remain neutral in any fighting has undermined Baghdad's hopes of unleashing "holy war" to expel American and British invaders, observers say.

According to experts on Shiite Islam, the word from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was also likely to ease tensions around Iraq's holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, scenes of tough fighting earlier in the week.

"Neither the occupying army nor the local officials, in the presence of such an ayatollah, have authority more legitimate than his," said Hamid Dabashi, a professor at Columbia University in the US and an expert on the Shiites.

Such "guidance" should soothe fears of religiously motivated attacks on US-led troops, Professor Dabashi said. However, he said the call may be short-lived.

Murtadha al-Kashmiri, a London representative of the ayatollah, said the cleric had asked followers not to take sides in the fighting. He denied earlier reports he had issued a fatwa, or formal religious edict. ");document.write("

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"According to the information we received, there is no fatwa referring to Americans or Iraq, but he has asked people to remain neutral and not get involved," Mr Kashmiri said.

Under Shiite religious law, the ayatollah's authority outranks that of Iraq's secular authorities, including Saddam Hussein, as well as that of any invading general or army commander.

US officers, who have given orders to avoid damage to holy sites for fear of inflaming anti-Western sentiment among Iraq's persecuted Shiite majority, welcomed the ayatollah's position.

But Professor Dabashi said the call could be a tactic, or even a ruse, to protect the sites and the true believers from harm at the hands of the invading armies. Religious law allows Ayatollah Sistani to resort to "taqiyah", or dissembling, for the good of the faith, to achieve those goals.

A fatwa from the ayatollah, issued earlier while he was under the control of Iraqi Government agents, directed the people to resist efforts to topple Saddam.

Ayatollah Sistani, whose followers pay him religious taxes and look to him for spiritual and practical guidance, is the supreme religious authority at the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya theological school in Najaf.

He is also responsible for the shrine of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet and the first leader of the Shiite community - a site sacred to Shiites around the world, including more than 60 million believers in neighbouring Iran.